Off-Duty Duties FORMER TITLE: Daddy Duty
by ProDLnEC aka NLcsimiamifanatic
Summary: Another tie-in with "A Different Road." Sometimes a man's duties off-the-clock were the best ones.


_**Daddy Duty**_

_I'm going to rate this story "M" for the ending a little couple fun!_

Horatio was on "daddy duty" today. His wife was in Hialeah for the day, with her mom and some visiting relatives. After driving Kyle to school, he enjoyed the morning with Faith, the two went grocery shopping and after dropping their purchases at home and Faith having a diaper change, father and daughter went out for a walk. In her stroller, Faith's head was on a swivel, looking at dogs being walked by their owners, to the birds that were flying in the sky. She got excited when they stopped by a park bench and three robins landed on the grass close to her stroller. She reached out, her little legs kicking. She wanted to touch them.

Horatio smiled.

"They're pretty, aren't they, sweetie? You can't touch them. They don't like that," he told her.

A string of women smiled at Horatio as they passed by him and Faith, most likely thinking he were a single dad taking his child to the park during his time with her. The two left the park bench after a few minutes and Horatio lifted Faith from her stroller and placed her down so she could walk on the grass holding his hand. She was still unsure on her feet but she trusted her daddy completely when she looked up at him.

"Da?"

"Want to go over to the swings?" He said to her.

Faith's mouth in a perfect 'o' and she began to walk. She _loved _swings. They were so much fun. She forgot about her lack of confidence and began almost run toward the swing set. After some time on the swings and a few trips half way down the slide, the two headed home for lunch and a nap. After a lunch of Gerber lil' entrees beef ravioli, Horatio tucked his daughter in for a nap then he got his own lunch. His wife called when he was eating to check in. Horatio never didn't get to spend the day with their children too often and she knew all enjoyed it tremendously. Aimee ignored the fact the mom friends seemed stunned and appalled that the mother of two had left them with "_their father"_ or_ "husband"_especially the baby. She didn't know about her friends' husbands or boyfriends or their children's fathers but the one she did know was that "_her husband"_ as it was so eloquently put by her friends, was a doting, hands-on father who jumped at any chance to spend the day taking care of the children. Sometimes, some men weren't given enough credit.

At 2:00, Horatio picked up Kyle from Dade Elementary School. In the last few months, whenever dad were supposed to pick him up at school he had been into work. Kyle was excited to see his dad. It made things even better that when the ice cream was there when they got home. Both children got a scoop of chocolate ice cream. Kyle's on a cone, Faith's in a cup. The three headed to the backyard afterwards. With his sister's "help" he was building a city.

In Hialeah, Aimee was not having as much of a good time as Horatio would have thought. Her mother wouldn't stop nagging at her that baby Faith still used a pacifier and then the fact that they had removed the training wheels from Kyle's new bike after only two weeks. The boy had fallen a few times and got scrapes on his arms and hands, but anyone who know a normal little boy, realized that Kyle looked at this as a badge of honor. He loved to show off scrapes and scabs. Then her relatives, whom she hadn't seen in a while, who hadn't been at her wedding, had met Horatio just once and for five minutes and before he received a call-out, kept making comments of what she saw in the lieutenant and how they could be a happy couple. Even though her mother had told them to "give it up, " trying to be discreet being they were in public. The two women didn't stop. Hope left the group early so she wouldn't feel her day had been ruined by them. Lacy gave her a hug when she walked to her car and apologized for her family, but not for herself. Lacy's comments hadn't bothered Aimee that much, it was just a grandmother being a grandmother. The other women's comments were uncalled for and totally inappropriate.

"It's not your fault, mom," Aimee told her mother. "Don't worry about it."

"Give the babies a kiss for me," she told Aimee.

Kyle asked a grilled cheese for dinner and Faith was in ready agreement. The kids and Horatio were just sitting down when Aimee arrived home. Kyle was the first to give her a big hug and proudly told her that he had received a hundred in his spelling test.

"Good for you!" Aimee told him.

Horatio's "daddy duty" that ended with "husband duty"— a little fun with his wife behind a locked bedroom door involving a private pair of handcuffs, an "arrest." But yet no annoying paperwork.


End file.
